01 July, 2017

Children still trapped in Mosul in dire need of protection

The devastation in western Mosul
is extreme, the people have been damaged, says Peter Hawkins of the
UNICEF mission in Iraq. The psycho-social care of children of the
Iraqi city has to be our paramount concern, he added.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi declared victory over Islamic State on Thursday saying the
army recaptured the Grand al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul where ISIS declared
a caliphate three years ago. Months of fierce fighting between the
terrorists and the US-led coalition have devastated not only the city
but also the lives of hundreds of thousands of locals.

UNICEF mission representative in
Iraq, Peter Hawkins says it’s difficult to say at the moment how
many lives were lost.

“We still haven’t got full
facts yet. Children are the innocent victims of any war. In this
particular war, those children still trapped in western Mosul are in
dire need of protection. And this is what we are calling for,”
he told RT.

“We said the same thing about
Ramadi and the western part of Mosul is no different; the whole way
of life has been taken away from the people, but the resilience of
those people and especially those children in Ramadi. Educational
services, schools started to open very quickly and started to offer a
ray of hope for the people returning. In eastern Mosul, over 350
schools are now open. They started to open within 100 days of the
conflict restarting there. It is possible, but the devastation of
West Mosul is extreme, the people have been damaged, the
psycho-social care of these children has to be our paramount
concern,” Hawkins said.